I believe that in each of us there is something that desires greatness. You may find this hard to believe when you start thinking about your day-to-day life. After all, most of our daily life somehow gets taken up with mundane boring tasks: getting ready for work, going to work, working, dealing with the “frustrating” people and situations at work, coming home, dealing with home, dealing with kids, dealing with bills ... yes, the list goes on and on.

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Even with all of that I think there are times all of us have something in us that says, “There has to be more.” I think we really want to be able to look back and feel that we really made a difference in this world and that in some way we made life better for others.

Part of the problem is that most of us don’t really think we are capable of greatness. Yes, we want to make a difference but most of the time we think it is beyond our reach. However, what we fail to recognize is that God actually created us with a desire to make a difference. We have been created in God’s image. Because God rejoices and delights in changing lives, redeeming hearts and restoring hope we also have been created to change lives for him.

Another problem is that we have a poor definition of greatness. Most of the time when we think about great people, we think about people like presidents, artists, scientists and activists; in short, those who have become famous. But those who are truly great are those who have learned to lay down their lives for the sake of others. Jesus says, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus demonstrated this kind of greatness when he died for us on the cross, taking all of our rebellion, sin and wickedness on himself, paying our debt and winning for us redemption and forgiveness. The Bible tells us that because of this great act of love, our guilt and shame have been removed from us. We learn from Jesus that when we intentionally turn from our sin and turn toward Christ and receive him into our lives we also receive the seed of true greatness into our hearts — Jesus. It is the love of Jesus, living in us that makes us truly great. It is the love of Jesus that changes our hearts and motivates us to seek to help others, bless others and love others. It is the love of Jesus living in us that teaches us that we no longer live for ourselves but for Jesus. This is what gives us the courage to lay down our lives for the sake of our friends. This love of Jesus is what enables us to love others when they don’t love us back, serve people when they don’t say thanks, give to others when no one is looking. It is in loving, serving and giving that we truly make a difference.

So today, decide to live a life of greatness that really makes a difference in the lives of others by receiving Christ, living for Christ and really loving people!